Lockdown: Senses - An uplifting story for much needed encouragement
I am not the author of this, but it was sent to me by a member of the Anglican Chaplaincy of Costa Almeria and Costa Calida, who normally worships at Aljambra Chapel, Albox.
To appreciate this fully, any who are not in Spain at present need to be aware of the current conditions in that nobody is permitted to leave their house for the purpose of taking exercise, but only for one person alone to go for essential shopping, for medication, for fuel, or to exercise a pet, no more than once per day, with severe fines for any breach of these rules.
Lockdown: Senses
I went for a walk today. I’m lucky. I can do that - because I have a dog.
A walk. A one-foot-in-front-of-the-other positive step at a comfortable pace;
simple freedom from the ‘around-the-home shuffle’ of confinement.
Bliss.
It was raining. It didn’t matter.
The soft, gentle drizzle feeling like a moist kiss brushing my cheek.
I met no-one; saw no vehicles; encountered no movement.
And then I heard it - and was momentarily startled !
Silence.
I heard the silence. Pure ,unadulterated silence.
I paused my step, selfishly allowing myself to be embraced by it for a few
indulgent seconds.
My nostrils twitched almost instantly. What was that smell?
Orange blossom ! Hanging over the fence of a garden. Beautiful !
I stood for a moment,staring at the star-shaped petals; the moist air glazing them
such that they glistened in the gloomy daylight, almost in competition with their
night-time friends.
Fragmented extracts of long-forgotten poems nudged my memory “....what is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare....”
Then I looked down at the verges lining the single strip of tarmac road along
which I’d walked, and saw the glowing bright yellow of the daisies and shamrocks, their
faces turned upward, seeming to implore the life-giving water to fall on them alone, to
quench their individual thirsts.
Suddenly my ears were alerted – noise? Noise in this silence? What..? Where..?
Up there ! There on the cable wires.! A row of tweeting birds, ruffling their feathers, taking a refreshing shower in this long-awaited free gift from the heavens. !
“We’re still here” they seemed to tell me, “all but drowned in the noise of your life, yet we’re still here”.
And so it was that, feeling fulfilled by creation; my inner-self calmed by silence; my body naturally-anointed ; and with childhood tunes touching my tongue “...each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings...” ,...... the dog and I walked home.